Indian sugar industry has been buoyed by the ethanol program. This has boosted the fortunes of sugar companies who have invested in the sector. While the government incentivized program has expanded ethanol production rapidly, it will take longer to achieve E-20 than envisaged by the government as blends considerably above 10% require substantial adaptations of the existing infrastructure. For the foreseeable future, sugar production (both for food and ethanol) is likely to remain at around 35-40 million tonnes, possibly even more for the above-mentioned reasons. Of this, 27-28 million tonnes will be for domestic food and about 4-5 million for the E-10 market. This would leave four to seven million tonnes of sugar for the export market.
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